Wednesday, May 14, 2008

My Silly Idea for the iPhone: Marry It To The MacBook Air!!

Mary Jo Foley, writing for ZDNet, reports that Bill Gates is saying that Windows 7 will not only have improvements both in the areas of power and memory requirements, but, even more significantly, that Windows 7 will be getting a major shot in the arm in the area of PC-phone connectivity.

Knowing Microsoft, I'm not sure how well they will succeed, but the idea is certainly interesting. According, from a transcript, Mr. Gates says:

“We’re hard at work, I would say, on the next version, which we call Windows 7. I’m very excited about the work being done there. The ability to be lower power, take less memory, be more efficient, and have lots more connections up to the mobile phone, so those scenarios connect up well to make it a great platform for the best gaming that can be done, to connect up to the thing being done out on the Internet, so that, for example, if you have two personal computers, that your files automatically are synchronized between them, and so you don’t have a lot of work to move that data back and forth.”

If Apple isn't already working on a similar approach in the area of PC-phone connectivity, then I hope they will do so soon. In the area of PC-phone connectivity, however, I have had this crazy idea for some time. I'm not sure if it is economically viable or not, but my crazy idea was to see Apple, if at all possible, more or less, build a laptop that also included all of the iPhone's circuitry, or, in other words - a MacBook that just happen to have a built-in iPhone! A laptop such as the MacBook Air especially comes to mind as a suitable candidate.

The MacBook Air is already so small and so very light that many people have reported that they carry it with them just about everywhere they go. Wouldn't it be nice if it doubled as an iPhone too? Imagine one device, one with the power and features of the iPhone's and all the power and features of a laptop - all rolled up into one! It would be both an iPhone, and as well, a laptop - but one on steroids!

As I said, its just a silly idea of mine, but who knows, it might just be worth a shot? After all, since the iPhone is already basically nothing more than a pocket sized Mac computer with calling features, then why can't we have a MacBook with a built-in iPhone to boot? Would it be that technically difficult? I don't think so. Would it be economical to build? That I'm not too sure?

If not marrying the iPhone with a MacBook, then at least, for me anyway, it would be nice to see Apple build some kind of docking accessory that would allow the iPhone make use of either a MacBook or a Mac desktop's much large screen real estate! Of course, where not talking about todays models as none of them have multi-touch screens, but they are surely coming! Reports that Apple is about to add significant multi-touch capabilities to OS X suggests to me that multi-touch Macs, and or monitors, are indeed coming and soon. How nice it would be to have them rolled up into one!

Ahhhhh, for now its just a dream, but a nice one at that, and one that could come true!